The Asian Trading World and the Coming of the Europeans
Main Idea
: In centuries following most European enterprise in the Indian ocean, efforts were centered to find a more profitable way to carry Asian products back to Europe. Some Europeans wanted to convert others to Christianity and some traders wanted to settle in coastal enclaves. Points:
The Asian sea trading network stretched from the Middle East and Africa along the coasts to Asian continent.
It broke into three main zones, it focused on major centers of handicraft manufacture.
Arab zones focused on making glass, carpets, and tapestries.
China produced paper, porcelain, and silk textiles.
Japan mainly made raw material: precious metals, foods, and forest products. Spices were among the highest paid raw material.
Trade Patterns: Long-distance trade was mainly for high-priced commodities like spices, ivory, and precious stones, but silk and cotton textiles were also traded.
Bulk items like rice, livestock, and timber was traded between ports within each of the main trading zones.
Navigation was of coastal variety with monsoon winds, nature of the ships, and navigation instruments.
The Arabs and Chinese had compasses and large, well-built ships.
There was several crucial points where the trade segment converge and where geographic funnels to norrow areas.
With the Portuguese arrival the Euopreans attempted to regulate and dominate trade.
No central control, absent of military force, and merchants had no common cause.
Princes and merchants woulf finance their own expeditions in Arabs and Chinese.
Trading vessels were armed to protect against attack of pirates.
Trading Empire: The Portuguese Response to the Encounter at Calicut
Main Idea: The European countries like Portugal wawnted to control Asian products and the Asian trading networks. They did not abid by the trading system's informal rules and used force to offset their low number of trading goods, capturing sea control and towns. Points:
The Portuguese did not abid to the informal rulers of commercial and cultural exchanges, existing for centuries in the Asian trading complex.
The Portuguese had little to exchange other than gold and silver with the Asian peoples.
Economic theorists teachings of dependent on the amount of precious metals in a monarchy. (Steadly flow). This enriched and strengthgn merchants and rulers of rival kingdoms and religions.
The Portuguese took by force with ehat they could not get through fair trade, unwilling to comprise with the possibility for profit in Asian Seas.
Portuguese offset the low number of trading goods with their superior ships and weapons and used force to extrat spices and other goods. Asian people could not mostly conquer the European fleets.
The European suprise attack, kept their adversaries off balance in critical years of empire building.
The small portuguese forces united for wealth and religious converts, taking advantage of the divided Asian countires.
Fleets like da Gama, he forced both Africa and Indian coast to submit to the Portuguese in 1502. he assaulted towns.
In 1509, Egyptian and Indian fleet final reprised and defeated Diu (Portuguese) to the western Indian coast.
Portuguese's sea control and raids was not sufficient for controlling the items they wanted like spice. From 1507 and onwards they strive to capture towns and build fortresses in the Asian trading network.
In 1507, they took over Ormuz and in 1510 rhey captured Goa. The following year they took over the most critical Malacca.
They served as Potuguese naval bases to patrol asian wates and have factories for spices and other products. They were key points directed and financed by the Portuguese kings.
They wanted to establish a Portuguese monopoly of controlliing key Asian products.
Ideally, they wanted to control the supply of these goods and sell them at high prices. Shipped from asian to eureopan merkets.
The Portuguese had little success to impose the licensing systems, they did not have a sizeabel portion of Asian trading networks.
Portuguese Vulnerability and the Rise of the Dutch and English Trading Empires Main Idea: Points:
Portuguese's plans never really became reality, for some decades they controlled much of the flow of spices like nutmeg and mace. They controled key condiments like pepper and cinnamon.
Portuguese resorted to severe punishments like hand cutting and caught transporting spices.
They did not have the soldiers or ships to sustian their monopolies, plus no licensing systems.
They had esistance from Asian rivals, poor military disciplines, rampant corruption for crown officals, and heavy Portuguese shipping lossing caused by the end of the 16th century.
Portuguese's empire that started to overextend and decline had no match to the rivaling Dutch and English war fleets in the early 17th century.
The Dutch emerged at was in short terms, vistorious. They captured the critical port and fortess of the Portuguese in Malacca. They built new ports in Batavia in 1620. (European knowledge of the Asian geography improved.)
The Dutch concentrated their monopoly on the control of certian spices comprared to the Portuguese.
The English fought hard and struggled/ lost for control of the Spice Islands.
The Dutch trading empire was made up for fortified towns and factories, warships on patrol, and monopoly control of limited product.
The Dutch had more and better armed ships and a more systematic monopoly control.
They regulated supply of cloves, nutmeg, and mace
Going Ashore: European Tribute Systems in Asia Main Idea: Europeans were able to control Asian seas, but not inland territories. Points:
The vast Asian armies offset European technological and organizational advantages.
Thus, Europeans accepted the power of Asian rulers in return for permission to trade. Only in a few regions did war occur.
The Portuguese and Dutch conquered coastal areas of Sri Lanka to control cinnamon.
In Java, the Dutch expanded from their base at Batavia to dominate coffee production.
By the mid-eighteenth century, they were the paramount power in Java.
The Spanish in the Philippines conquered the northern islands, but failed in the Islamic south.
The Europeans established tribute regimes resembling the Spanish system in the New World.
Indigenous peoples lived under their own leaders and paid tribute in products produced by coerced labor under the direction of local elites.
Spreading the Faith: The Missionary Enterprise in south and Southeast Asia Main Idea: The Protestant Dutch and English were not much interested in winning converts. Catholic Portugal and Spain were, but success in Asia was minimal. Points:
The world religions of Islam and Hinduism were difficult foes.
Italian Jesuit Robert Di Nobili during the 1660s unsuccessfully attempted to win converts among upper-caste members through study of Sanskrit and Indian culture.
General conversion occurred only in isolated regions like the northern Philippines. Once conquered, the government turned indigenous peoples over to missionary orders.
Converted Filipino leaders led their peoples into European ways, but traditional beliefs remained strong within the converts' Christianity.
Modest Returns: The Early Impact of Europeans in Mar-time Asia Main Idea: By 1700, following two centuries of involvement, Europeans had made only a minimal impact on the peoples of South and Southeast Asia. Points:
Important new trade routes linking Europe, the Indian Ocean world, the Philippines, and the Americas had opened.
The Europeans also had established commercial centers, such as Goa, Calcutta, and Batavia, and introduced the concept of sea warfare into a once peaceful commercial world.
Still, the Asian system survived, and Europeans decided to accept rather than destroy existing arrangements.
Because of the long contacts between Europe and Asia, the level of exchanges did not match the New World Colombian Exchange, although American food plants introduced by Europeans were important.
European ideas, not impressing Asians, had minimal impact.
Chinese and Japanese Responses to Western Influence:
China
Japan
· The Europeans gave the people of the Yangtze region new food crops from America like peanuts, maize and sweet potatoes. It quickly spread to the hilly and marginal areas; it helped to irrigation rice lands of southern China. The population growth surged from this. · European arrival increased the number of Arab and Asian traders in Macao and Canton. The merchant class gained a major profit becoming a economic boom. They had prosperity. Handicraft production increased. · Some Chinese scholars showed interest in Christianity teachings and Western thinking more generally. (The European targeted the top of the social hierarchy in attempts to convert the Chinese to be Christian.) They won few elites. · The Chinese elite were also interested in their scientific knowledge and technical skills. People like Matteo Ricco and Adam Schall corrected calendars, forging cannon, fixing clock and taught the Chinese elite about eclipses in imperial city. · The court officials called the Europeans barbaric and were suspicious that they tried to limit their contract with the imperial family. · At some of the courts, the scholar’ officials were especially humiliated by the foreigners’ correction to their calendars and were openly hostile to the Jesuits. They were seriously harassed. · The later Ming emperors remained sufficiently fascinated by their ability.
· The Japanese got exchanges/goods like silver, copper, pottery, and lacquer ware, from the European increasing their trade. · European traders and missionaries brought firearms, printing presses and other Western like Clocks. The Japanese improved the design of the firearm and it revolutionized Japanese warfare and contributed to many of the unifiers’ victories. · The Japanese ventured oversea to trade with Formosa, Korea, Philippines and Siam from the Europeans’ commercial contracts. · Christian missionaries tried to convert the Japanese to Roman Catholicism. They first went in the daimyos’ domains and worked their way to political center I the 1570s. Christianity was a counterforce for the militant Buddhist orders, became resist to his rise to power, so Nobunaga tool missionaries under his protection and encouraged them to preach their faith to his people. They converted many of the daimyos and their samurai retainers. · Some believed they almost won over Nobunaga, wearing western clothes, encouraging the copying of Western paintings like the Virgin Mary and scenes of the life of Christ and permitted the buildings of Christian churches. He believed it would brighten and benefit the common life of Japan. Hundreds of thousands of people were converted in the early 1580s. · When Nobunaga was murdered in the late 1580s, his successor Hideyoshi was lukewarm towards the missionaries. Missionary fell due to the resistance of Buddhist sects that had been crushed. Hideyoshi and his followers had reports of converts refusing to obey their overlords’ commands when they believed them to be in conflict with newly adopted Christian beliefs. · Social order was growing more apparent; the new religion posed a threat. The threat was compounded with signs of European’s following up their commercial and missionary overture with military expeditions and at conquering islands. · The Japanese being strongly impressed by European firearms and pugnacity did not take the treats of invasion lightly.
Japanese officials restricted foreign activities to Japan fearing European intentions beginning in the late 1580s. Hideyoshi first ordered the Christian missionaries to leave the island. By the mid-1590s, he was actively persecuted Christian missionaries and converts.
His successor, Ieyasu continued this persecution and official banned the faith in 1614. European missionaries that remained underground were hunted down and killed or expelled. Japanese converts were compelled to renounce their faith, those who refused were imprisoned, tortured and executed,
In the 1630s, thousands of Christians tried to practice in secret, it became so intense that these converts joined in a hard fight and rebelled against local diamyos and shoguns, they were reduced.
Ieyasu and his successors, Christian persecution grew broader in campaigning to isolate from outside influences. The exports of silver and copper were greatly restricted and Western ideas were banned to prevent Christian ideas from reentering the country.
Main Idea
: In centuries following most European enterprise in the Indian ocean, efforts were centered to find a more profitable way to carry Asian products back to Europe. Some Europeans wanted to convert others to Christianity and some traders wanted to settle in coastal enclaves.
Points:
Trading Empire: The Portuguese Response to the Encounter at Calicut
Main Idea: The European countries like Portugal wawnted to control Asian products and the Asian trading networks. They did not abid by the trading system's informal rules and used force to offset their low number of trading goods, capturing sea control and towns.
Points:
- The Portuguese did not abid to the informal rulers of commercial and cultural exchanges, existing for centuries in the Asian trading complex.
- The Portuguese had little to exchange other than gold and silver with the Asian peoples.
- Economic theorists teachings of dependent on the amount of precious metals in a monarchy. (Steadly flow). This enriched and strengthgn merchants and rulers of rival kingdoms and religions.
- The Portuguese took by force with ehat they could not get through fair trade, unwilling to comprise with the possibility for profit in Asian Seas.
- Portuguese offset the low number of trading goods with their superior ships and weapons and used force to extrat spices and other goods. Asian people could not mostly conquer the European fleets.
- The European suprise attack, kept their adversaries off balance in critical years of empire building.
- The small portuguese forces united for wealth and religious converts, taking advantage of the divided Asian countires.
- Fleets like da Gama, he forced both Africa and Indian coast to submit to the Portuguese in 1502. he assaulted towns.
- In 1509, Egyptian and Indian fleet final reprised and defeated Diu (Portuguese) to the western Indian coast.
- Portuguese's sea control and raids was not sufficient for controlling the items they wanted like spice. From 1507 and onwards they strive to capture towns and build fortresses in the Asian trading network.
- In 1507, they took over Ormuz and in 1510 rhey captured Goa. The following year they took over the most critical Malacca.
- They served as Potuguese naval bases to patrol asian wates and have factories for spices and other products. They were key points directed and financed by the Portuguese kings.
- They wanted to establish a Portuguese monopoly of controlliing key Asian products.
- Ideally, they wanted to control the supply of these goods and sell them at high prices. Shipped from asian to eureopan merkets.
- The Portuguese had little success to impose the licensing systems, they did not have a sizeabel portion of Asian trading networks.
Portuguese Vulnerability and the Rise of the Dutch and English Trading EmpiresMain Idea:
Points:
Going Ashore: European Tribute Systems in Asia
Main Idea: Europeans were able to control Asian seas, but not inland territories.
Points:
Spreading the Faith: The Missionary Enterprise in south and Southeast Asia
Main Idea: The Protestant Dutch and English were not much interested in winning converts. Catholic Portugal and Spain were, but success in Asia was minimal.
Points:
Modest Returns: The Early Impact of Europeans in Mar-time Asia
Main Idea: By 1700, following two centuries of involvement, Europeans had made only a minimal impact on the peoples of South and Southeast Asia.
Points:
Chinese and Japanese Responses to Western Influence:
· European arrival increased the number of Arab and Asian traders in Macao and Canton. The merchant class gained a major profit becoming a economic boom. They had prosperity. Handicraft production increased.
· Some Chinese scholars showed interest in Christianity teachings and Western thinking more generally. (The European targeted the top of the social hierarchy in attempts to convert the Chinese to be Christian.) They won few elites.
· The Chinese elite were also interested in their scientific knowledge and technical skills. People like Matteo Ricco and Adam Schall corrected calendars, forging cannon, fixing clock and taught the Chinese elite about eclipses in imperial city.
· The court officials called the Europeans barbaric and were suspicious that they tried to limit their contract with the imperial family.
· At some of the courts, the scholar’ officials were especially humiliated by the foreigners’ correction to their calendars and were openly hostile to the Jesuits. They were seriously harassed.
· The later Ming emperors remained sufficiently fascinated by their ability.
· European traders and missionaries brought firearms, printing presses and other Western like Clocks. The Japanese improved the design of the firearm and it revolutionized Japanese warfare and contributed to many of the unifiers’ victories.
· The Japanese ventured oversea to trade with Formosa, Korea, Philippines and Siam from the Europeans’ commercial contracts.
· Christian missionaries tried to convert the Japanese to Roman Catholicism. They first went in the daimyos’ domains and worked their way to political center I the 1570s. Christianity was a counterforce for the militant Buddhist orders, became resist to his rise to power, so Nobunaga tool missionaries under his protection and encouraged them to preach their faith to his people. They converted many of the daimyos and their samurai retainers.
· Some believed they almost won over Nobunaga, wearing western clothes, encouraging the copying of Western paintings like the Virgin Mary and scenes of the life of Christ and permitted the buildings of Christian churches. He believed it would brighten and benefit the common life of Japan. Hundreds of thousands of people were converted in the early 1580s.
· When Nobunaga was murdered in the late 1580s, his successor Hideyoshi was lukewarm towards the missionaries. Missionary fell due to the resistance of Buddhist sects that had been crushed. Hideyoshi and his followers had reports of converts refusing to obey their overlords’ commands when they believed them to be in conflict with newly adopted Christian beliefs.
· Social order was growing more apparent; the new religion posed a threat. The threat was compounded with signs of European’s following up their commercial and missionary overture with military expeditions and at conquering islands.
· The Japanese being strongly impressed by European firearms and pugnacity did not take the treats of invasion lightly.